Health and Fitness

Apr 25 2008

ABC News Features Kaiser Permanente's Local Produce Programs

Kaiser Permanente's efforts to make available fresh, locally grown produce were featured April 21 on an ABC television news program.

The Channel 7 news story, "Kaiser Implements Local Produce Program," talked about a Kaiser Permanente program through which thousands of patient meals feature fresh produce from California farms.

Preston Maring, MD, who founded Kaiser Permanente's farmers' market program in 2003, told Channel 7 that the pilot program involving patients' meals now includes hospitals in Southern California as well as Northern California. Kaiser Permanente purchased 60 tons of fresh, local produce in 2007 for patients' meals. This effort complements Kaiser Permanente's commitment to its farmers' markets, now open for business at 30 of the organization's facilities around the country.

Patients are taking notice – and customer satisfaction scores are increasing, said Jan Sanders, Kaiser Permanente'a national nutrition services director. "We recently got results from our patient satisfaction survey and our patients have indicated that they like the fruit - it's a real patient satisfier and our scores have improved as a result of this program," Sanders said in the interview.

Watch the entire segment now on ABC Channel 7 in San Francisco.

For more information about Dr. Preston Maring and his farmers' market program, read his blog.